Tech Tuesday: Math Doodles for iPad

This week, the spotlight is on Math Doodles by Carstens Studios. Math Doodles is a whimsical app that focuses on making math fun.

When the user opens up the app, there is a mini-story from the creator, Daren Carstens. He explains how he didn’t always like math. It’s a nice personal connection that students can make, especially those who are struggling in math. Math Doodles is centered around the theory of game-based learning.

Currently, there are 4 games available on Math Doodles. There is Sum Stacker, Connect Sums, Unknown Square, and Splat Go Round (Pattern Twist coming soon!). In Sum Stacker, you are given 3 columns and 6 dice. You must rearrange the dice so that the sum equals the column number. In Connect Sums, you are given a square of 9 numbers and a target sum. You must find addends (connected) to equal the target sum. Unknown Square has strong algebraic thinking, where the player must find the missing addends. The addends have to add up to the target sums diagonally, vertically, and horizontally. Splat Go Round is a time-lapse game where they player SPLATS the bug to show the correct hour.

The games can be timed or untimed. The player can choose easy or hard levels. As an added bonus, all of the virtual manipulatives can be changed. The default are dice, but you can change it to fingers, tiles, ten frames, tally marks, Spanish tally marks, Roman numerals, Chinese numbers, Arabic numbers, Braille, US coins, polygons…and more! It’s very customizable.

The math goals of the app are: time and clocks, money, problem solving, mathematical reasoning, math enjoinment, numbers and operations, number sense, addition, subtraction, angles, and rotation. A tall order for such a cute little app, but it delivers!

I give this app a 4/5. It’s creative and fun, but somewhat limited. My students all love it.